Bangor – Portland Tram

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The Bangor - Portland tram was an interurban tram operator in the US state of Pennsylvania . The route was around 14 kilometers long and built in standard gauge . The train operated with 550 volts direct current.

First, the Bangor, East Bangor and Portland Traction Company was founded in 1901 , which opened a four-kilometer electric tram route from Bangor to East Bangor in the fall of that year. In the summer of 1902, however, the company went bankrupt and was reorganized as the Bangor and East Bangor Street Railway Company . The extension to Portland planned from the beginning should now be carried out by the East Bangor, Portland and Delaware River Street Railway Company , founded on September 12, 1902 . Construction was delayed and the two companies merged on May 26, 1904 to form the Bangor and Portland Traction Company , which completed the line to Portland the following year. Tram cars now ran between the two cities every hour. The planned extension to the Delaware Water Gap was not realized due to a veto by the Lehigh and New England Railroad .

From 1908 to 1915, a railcar operated by the Lehigh Valley Transit Company ran continuously from Philadelphia to Portland on weekends during the summer months . The Northampton Traction Company , which operated a tram from Easton to Bangor, took over Bangor & Portland on January 1, 1916. However, continuous operation to Easton did not materialize, only the timetables of the two lines were coordinated. A short route relocation was carried out in Bangor to improve the connection.

In 1923 the company had to go bankrupt again due to the drop in transport numbers and was reorganized as the Bangor and Portland Transit Company . A new railcar was still procured in 1924, but the railway closed the section from East Bangor to Portland on March 20, 1926. A road was built on part of the route. On the remainder of the section from Bangor to East Bangor, tram traffic ended in September 1927.

literature

  • Benson W. Rohrbeck (1997): Pennsylvania's Street Railways West Chester PA: Traction Publications. Page 141.
  • Benson W. Rohrbeck (2007): Pennsylvania Street Railway Atlas West Chester PA: Ben Rohrbeck Traction Publications. Page 61.